Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must enjoy being in the limelight for the extended period of time that he has been. It's probably not his fault although domestic criticism has escalated in response to his over emphasis and aggressiveness towards America and its ideology (read: capitalism, christianity etc.)
The odd thing is that in Iran, the highest elected official is not the President. Rather, that honor rests with the 'Supreme Leader' - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and it makes him, in simple words, the most powerful man in the country.
I can't think of another nation that hates America more. I really can't. Iran has repeatedly expressed its disdain, disregard and yes, hatred for America and unarguably deserves that status.
We hear a lot of things about Ahmadinejad. Poor guy, America must hate him so. One of the foremost reasons is certainly the fact that it's impossible for the average (and severely limited) American tongue to pronounce his name.
As if Moo-ham-mud wasn't tough enough for them.
Face it, his name makes John Mccain look like a kid trying to recite that crazy tongue twister that none of us could ever do. That's not all. It seems as if Ahmadinejad is a far cry from the man that did his doctoral studies in civil engineering and made it to the world mayor shortlist during his stint in Teheran. He seems far away from his campaign promises of populism and economic initiative.
Bottom line: Petrodollars have not been managed properly. Growth has stagnated and the usual macroeconomic indicators - unemployment, inflation, GDP are seen as half empty and not half full.
That's not the point. I detest religious extremism to the core and it doesn't matter what the religion is.I have no sympathy for fundamentalists. But there's a reason for this volatile relationship that the two countries share. Everyone loves conspiracy theories and there are more than enough to go around. Some are just downright disrespectful while others are downright truthful.
Operation Ajax is as blatant as it gets.
Madeline Albright, as a holder of that infamous position of US Secretary of State, is most well known for her "the price was worth it" remarks when asked what she thought of the fact that 500,000 Iraqi children may have died as a direct and indirect result of US economic sanctions. This shouldn't disparage her statement in March, 2000 when she said, "In 1953, the United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. The Dwight D. Eisenhower administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons, but the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development and it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs. Moreover, during the next quarter century, the United States and the West gave sustained backing to the Shah's regime."
There's no flip side to the narrative. The CIA used one of its most qualified and skilled operatives, Kermit Roosevelt (Teddy's grandson) to organize an overthrowing of the Democratically Elected Iranian government.
Mohammad Mossadeq is still viewed by many as a person who tried to implement unacceptable radical and secular policies. To a majority, arguably, he remains the hero of Third-World Anti-Imperialism. As the Prime Minister of Iran, it seems logical that he acted in the interests of his country and in doing so committed the gravest of errors which led to his downfall and subsequent house arrest till his death in 1967.
The Anglo-Persian Oil Company was created in 1908 and was renamed the Anglo Iranian Oil Company in 1935. Like any multi-national corporation, its focus was undeniably on maximizing its profits and eventually, it led to a conflict with the Iranian government. In 1947, for example, after reporting after tax profits of 40 million pounds, Iran was paid 7 million, little under 18%. Apart from the financial downside, dissent continued to rise as a result of the company's treatment of its local labour.
A Director of Iran's Petroleum institute noted. "Wages were 50 cents a day. There was no vacation pay, no sick leave, no disability compensation. The workers lived in a shanty town called Kaghazabad, or Paper city, without running water or electricity, ... In winter the earth flooded and became a flat, perspiring lake. The mud in town was knee-deep, and ... when the rains subsided, clouds of nipping, small-winged flies rose from the stagnant water to fill the nostrils .... Summer was worse. ... The heat was torrid ... sticky and unrelenting - while the wind and sandstorms shipped off the desert hot as a blower. The dwellings of Kaghazabad, cobbled from rusted oil drums hammered flat, turned into sweltering ovens. ... In every crevice hung the foul, sulfurous stench of burning oil .... in Kaghazad there was nothing - not a tea shop, not a bath, not a single tree. The tiled reflecting pool and shaded central square that were part of every Iranian town, ... were missing here. The unpaved alleyways were emporiums for rats."
Eventually, negotiations resulted in a hostile situation and led to the Abadan Crisis, where foreign countries refused to buy Iranian Oil. Britain was incensed and lobbied hard for American support. Truman found himself in a Catch-22 situation because although he opposed intervention, he needed Britain's support in Korea. Finally, under a new Eisenhower administration, America called in the CIA and worked with Churchill to fund a coup d'etat. Steven Kinzer narrates the details in his book, "All the Shah's Men: An American Coup".
Armed with a swollen budget and the complete backing of the governments of two of the most powerful nations in the world, Kermit Roosevelt did not have to work hard to slowly work his way through process. By bribing members of parliament and parties that formed Mossadeq's coalition, he sowed the initial seeds of unrest. When the coalition started splitting apart, he focused on the media, gaining control of important newspapers, columnists and reporters. By the time he moved onto the religious leaders, the coup was primed for success. Kinzer claims that Roosevelt even hired gangs of criminals to create a sense of lawlessness on the streets of Teheran. After a failed attempt on August 15th, 1953, Roosevelt staged another attempt 4 days later this time succeeding amidst heavy artillery and human casualty. Mossadeq was arrested, the Shah was reinstated and, as every story should have a happy ending, the Shah's did too at the time.
He flew back to Tehran, and a couple of nights later received Kermit Roosevelt on the last night that Roosevelt spent in Iran before returning to Washington. The two of them toasted each other with vodka, and the shah said, “I owe my throne to God, my people, my army, and you.” He was quite right, although he might have gotten the order a little mixed up.
Kermit returned to the Oval Office a hero, future pin-up boy for the American Gestapo and Sesame Street. Okay, poor humour.
Operation Ajax was seen as a HUGE success but it can also be viewed as a HUGE disaster. Until the 1979 revolution, the Shah's regime brutally oppressed any political uprisings and oversaw a disgusting human rights record as Washington turned a blind eye with the odd thumbs up.
Operation Ajax should not justify anything but the least it can do is serve as a reminder that people may forgive but may never forget.
The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company changed its name in 1954, barely a year after the coup.
Till today, it is known as British Petroleum.
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Sir DGB
It's always fun but never correct, to compare sportsmen over different eras. It's even worse then, to compare sportsmen from different sports.
I don't have anything original for you though, just bits of information from here and there to provide some perspective on Don Bradman.
Charles Davis, a statistician from Melbourne, wrote a book titled, "The Best of the Best" almost a decade ago. Being the statistician that he was, he reverted to the ol' standard deviation method to see what he could come up with (obviously it's a little bit more complicated than that). Many people rightly question the veracity of results such as these. The factors that come into question are endless. How many countries play cricket and baseball as compared to football. Duh.
That shouldn't be the point here.
Anyway, picking the most dominant sportsman of his sport is hard enough so we'll do it spontaneously. When you see the name of the sport, just say the first name that comes into your head and we'll leave it at that. Ready?
1. Baseball
2. Cricket
3. Basketball
4. Golf
5. American Football
6. Football
So what did you say?
1. Babe Ruth would be a likely answer. The fact is, a true baseball fan might equally consider Ty Cobb for the enormity of his stats. The 'Georgia Peach', over the course of his career, set 90 Major League Records and still owns the highest Career Batting Average at .367, a hallowed statistic for Baseball.
2. Don Bradman? You should have said that if you answered without sentimentality. There's no possible way one could think of an argument for a Tendulkar/Lara, the reason being that there's no argument against that kind of consistency.
3. Michael Jordan? Good. Although Wilt Chamberlain still has the most unbelievable records, it is a measure of Jordan's impact on the game (not to mention his scoring average of 30.12) that makes him the first basketball name on everybody's lips.
4.Jack Nicklaus? The majority of you would be thinking Tiger Woods and justifiably so. I'm a big fan. Until, he gets to that magical mark of 18, we'll leave it at Nicklaus.
5. Did you say Joe Montana? I couldn't think of anything else. Dan Marino for the stats but Brett Favre's right up there as well. Maybe Brady and Manning will be around there once retired but Montana's a perennial favorite. No disservice to non-QB's like Jim Brown or Jerry Rice.
6. This is tricky because there's so much heart involved. There's no more than two choices, Pele and Maradonna, and the argument is record v/s (i dunno) skill? Either way, i'll let the goals speak for themselves and we'll leave it at Pele for now.
Alright so we've got our names. Cobb with a batting avg. of .367, Bradman with a famous but infamous average of 99.94, Jordan with a scoring average of 30.12 (no disrespect to the six rings and innumerable clutch plays), Nicklaus with the 18 majors, Montana with the 4 superbowls (Personally i would have preferred a stats guy like Favre or Marino) and Pele with his 1280 goals in 1363 games.
Those are some crazy statistics right there. The good thing is that the hard work is already over. Davis's findings revealed a final standard deviation mark which proved how ahead each of them were beyond their contemporaries. Again, this is where the problem comes in because you have to ignore crucial factors such as opposition, popularity of the sport etc. There are just too many intangibles. Nevertheless, here's what it looks like.
Joe Montana stood at 3.1 which is not bad at all, considering the fact that he's not famous for his yardage. Jordan was at 3.4 (Chamberlain's is almost as much but the rest of the data are way behind).Jack Nicklaus was 3.5 (Obviously a lot less now considering Woods' charge up the major list). Cobb was 3.6 and Pele was a 3.7. These are all pretty close even though they're simply measures of the deviation.
And Sir Donald George Bradman? He was 'calculated' to be 4.4!
To provide a picture of the difference, it was statistically proven that with such ratings as the basis, Jordan would need to have scored 43 point per game to have a 4.4 rating!! It's impossible to imagine any basketball player achieving that. Furthermore, Nicklaus would have required 25 majors and Ty Cobb would have needed a batting average of .392, an unthinkable mark for any player.
We needn't remind ourselves of the uselessness of comparisons and speculation. We're all aware that it's impossible to assign a 'number' or 'rating' on certain perfomances and statistics. In spite of all that, Bradman's legacy is a strong one and will hopefully remain that way.
It's quite simple really. I wouldn't be surprised if some (some???) golfer won 18 majors , a baseball player averaged .367 or a basketball player averaged over 30 points per game. I wouldn't even mind putting money on it (for an unlimited time period, that is).
I would bet everything i had, however, on the fact that no cricketer will ever, ever come close to breaking the 99.94 mark that has long since become part of cricketing folklore.
I don't have anything original for you though, just bits of information from here and there to provide some perspective on Don Bradman.
Charles Davis, a statistician from Melbourne, wrote a book titled, "The Best of the Best" almost a decade ago. Being the statistician that he was, he reverted to the ol' standard deviation method to see what he could come up with (obviously it's a little bit more complicated than that). Many people rightly question the veracity of results such as these. The factors that come into question are endless. How many countries play cricket and baseball as compared to football. Duh.
That shouldn't be the point here.
Anyway, picking the most dominant sportsman of his sport is hard enough so we'll do it spontaneously. When you see the name of the sport, just say the first name that comes into your head and we'll leave it at that. Ready?
1. Baseball
2. Cricket
3. Basketball
4. Golf
5. American Football
6. Football
So what did you say?
1. Babe Ruth would be a likely answer. The fact is, a true baseball fan might equally consider Ty Cobb for the enormity of his stats. The 'Georgia Peach', over the course of his career, set 90 Major League Records and still owns the highest Career Batting Average at .367, a hallowed statistic for Baseball.
2. Don Bradman? You should have said that if you answered without sentimentality. There's no possible way one could think of an argument for a Tendulkar/Lara, the reason being that there's no argument against that kind of consistency.
3. Michael Jordan? Good. Although Wilt Chamberlain still has the most unbelievable records, it is a measure of Jordan's impact on the game (not to mention his scoring average of 30.12) that makes him the first basketball name on everybody's lips.
4.Jack Nicklaus? The majority of you would be thinking Tiger Woods and justifiably so. I'm a big fan. Until, he gets to that magical mark of 18, we'll leave it at Nicklaus.
5. Did you say Joe Montana? I couldn't think of anything else. Dan Marino for the stats but Brett Favre's right up there as well. Maybe Brady and Manning will be around there once retired but Montana's a perennial favorite. No disservice to non-QB's like Jim Brown or Jerry Rice.
6. This is tricky because there's so much heart involved. There's no more than two choices, Pele and Maradonna, and the argument is record v/s (i dunno) skill? Either way, i'll let the goals speak for themselves and we'll leave it at Pele for now.
Alright so we've got our names. Cobb with a batting avg. of .367, Bradman with a famous but infamous average of 99.94, Jordan with a scoring average of 30.12 (no disrespect to the six rings and innumerable clutch plays), Nicklaus with the 18 majors, Montana with the 4 superbowls (Personally i would have preferred a stats guy like Favre or Marino) and Pele with his 1280 goals in 1363 games.
Those are some crazy statistics right there. The good thing is that the hard work is already over. Davis's findings revealed a final standard deviation mark which proved how ahead each of them were beyond their contemporaries. Again, this is where the problem comes in because you have to ignore crucial factors such as opposition, popularity of the sport etc. There are just too many intangibles. Nevertheless, here's what it looks like.
Joe Montana stood at 3.1 which is not bad at all, considering the fact that he's not famous for his yardage. Jordan was at 3.4 (Chamberlain's is almost as much but the rest of the data are way behind).Jack Nicklaus was 3.5 (Obviously a lot less now considering Woods' charge up the major list). Cobb was 3.6 and Pele was a 3.7. These are all pretty close even though they're simply measures of the deviation.
And Sir Donald George Bradman? He was 'calculated' to be 4.4!
To provide a picture of the difference, it was statistically proven that with such ratings as the basis, Jordan would need to have scored 43 point per game to have a 4.4 rating!! It's impossible to imagine any basketball player achieving that. Furthermore, Nicklaus would have required 25 majors and Ty Cobb would have needed a batting average of .392, an unthinkable mark for any player.
We needn't remind ourselves of the uselessness of comparisons and speculation. We're all aware that it's impossible to assign a 'number' or 'rating' on certain perfomances and statistics. In spite of all that, Bradman's legacy is a strong one and will hopefully remain that way.
It's quite simple really. I wouldn't be surprised if some (some???) golfer won 18 majors , a baseball player averaged .367 or a basketball player averaged over 30 points per game. I wouldn't even mind putting money on it (for an unlimited time period, that is).
I would bet everything i had, however, on the fact that no cricketer will ever, ever come close to breaking the 99.94 mark that has long since become part of cricketing folklore.
Saturday, 6 September 2008
GOP
Okay. This is not a liberal blog.
I'm not a Republican.
I'm not a Democrat.
I'm not even a citizen of the United States of America.
So hear me out as i offer an opinion on the Grand Old Party.
Who is Sarah Palin?
She's a 44 year old mom of five.
Fine.
She's a pentecostal born-again Christian.Bible-believing.
Fine.
Strong social conservative, anti-abortion, for the death penalty.
Fine.
She'd rather kids be taught abstinence than safe-sex.
Wait a minute. No, that's alright. She believed in it, and naturally ensured that what she preached to her citizens, she preached to her children. Before you say kids are off-limits you must remember that I'm not Barack Obama and I'm not a Democrat. Very conveniently then, I'm going to take a pot-shot here.
Bristol Palin is a 17 year old who is five months pregnant; there's a chance that five months ago she was still 16. Irrelevant nonetheless.
Obviously she couldn't abort 4-5 months ago, in spite of the fact that her mom claims she had a 'choice'. So she decides to marry the father, Levi Johnston. As a side-note, one must note that Sarah Palin vehemently opposed funding for teen mothers.
Levi Johnston describes himself as 'a fuckin redneck'. He also claims/claimed, through MySpace that he'd kick anyone's ass that tried to mess with him or something like that. Irrelevant. He also stated that he didn't want kids. Hmmm...wonder when he stated that.
There's nothing wrong with Bristol Palin being pregnant. It's simply the fact that all these conservative values preached but not practiced don't make the GOP look very good.
By the way, this is what Sarah Palin thinks of the war in "Eye-rack".
"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God," she exhorted the congregants. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."
WHAAAAAAAAT.
So those radical islamic terrorists kill in the name of God. Despicable.
US troops are sent out to war to "carry out God's plan????"
Where's the difference?
Furthermore, Palin's Church (Wasilla Assembly of God) has a pastor and his name is Ed Kahlins. Here's what he had to say about Iraq.
"What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what's going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. ... We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. ... Jesus called us to die. You're worried about getting hurt? He's called us to die. Listen, you know we can't even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. ... I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode."
SHIT! ARE YOU SERIOUS? (and to think Jeremiah Wright got all the attention)
I saw the DNC and the RNC and was appalled at the latter. Rudy Giuliani deserves to be censured. Of all the things, he chose to take a low blow aimed at Obama's community organizing?? Come on, that's cynical to the core.
There's a nice comment i found on the internet after Giuliani's speech. It reads,"yeah! damn hippies. i love it when rudy shows those punks how to practice real christian virtues and shows em the value of a good solid marriage. oh wait, shit... ooops"
By the way, Giuliani has three wives.
I think I'm going to stop now. I'm not an Obama fan. He's a brilliant orator but if he's elected, he's going to have to prove it. I know one thing though.
I don't think America is the same country it was. It's been heading in an unfavorable direction of late and there's no doubt about that. The way i see it, voters have two choices this election. Go with McCain but believe me, i don't think he's going to change shit.
Other option? Take a chance on Obama. So it might not work, but since when has the thought of failure ever dissuaded us from doing something?
The GOP should never change its name. Because that's exactly what it is.
The GRAND OLD Party.
I'm not a Republican.
I'm not a Democrat.
I'm not even a citizen of the United States of America.
So hear me out as i offer an opinion on the Grand Old Party.
Who is Sarah Palin?
She's a 44 year old mom of five.
Fine.
She's a pentecostal born-again Christian.Bible-believing.
Fine.
Strong social conservative, anti-abortion, for the death penalty.
Fine.
She'd rather kids be taught abstinence than safe-sex.
Wait a minute. No, that's alright. She believed in it, and naturally ensured that what she preached to her citizens, she preached to her children. Before you say kids are off-limits you must remember that I'm not Barack Obama and I'm not a Democrat. Very conveniently then, I'm going to take a pot-shot here.
Bristol Palin is a 17 year old who is five months pregnant; there's a chance that five months ago she was still 16. Irrelevant nonetheless.
Obviously she couldn't abort 4-5 months ago, in spite of the fact that her mom claims she had a 'choice'. So she decides to marry the father, Levi Johnston. As a side-note, one must note that Sarah Palin vehemently opposed funding for teen mothers.
Levi Johnston describes himself as 'a fuckin redneck'. He also claims/claimed, through MySpace that he'd kick anyone's ass that tried to mess with him or something like that. Irrelevant. He also stated that he didn't want kids. Hmmm...wonder when he stated that.
There's nothing wrong with Bristol Palin being pregnant. It's simply the fact that all these conservative values preached but not practiced don't make the GOP look very good.
By the way, this is what Sarah Palin thinks of the war in "Eye-rack".
"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God," she exhorted the congregants. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."
WHAAAAAAAAT.
So those radical islamic terrorists kill in the name of God. Despicable.
US troops are sent out to war to "carry out God's plan????"
Where's the difference?
Furthermore, Palin's Church (Wasilla Assembly of God) has a pastor and his name is Ed Kahlins. Here's what he had to say about Iraq.
"What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what's going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. ... We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. ... Jesus called us to die. You're worried about getting hurt? He's called us to die. Listen, you know we can't even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. ... I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode."
SHIT! ARE YOU SERIOUS? (and to think Jeremiah Wright got all the attention)
I saw the DNC and the RNC and was appalled at the latter. Rudy Giuliani deserves to be censured. Of all the things, he chose to take a low blow aimed at Obama's community organizing?? Come on, that's cynical to the core.
There's a nice comment i found on the internet after Giuliani's speech. It reads,"yeah! damn hippies. i love it when rudy shows those punks how to practice real christian virtues and shows em the value of a good solid marriage. oh wait, shit... ooops"
By the way, Giuliani has three wives.
I think I'm going to stop now. I'm not an Obama fan. He's a brilliant orator but if he's elected, he's going to have to prove it. I know one thing though.
I don't think America is the same country it was. It's been heading in an unfavorable direction of late and there's no doubt about that. The way i see it, voters have two choices this election. Go with McCain but believe me, i don't think he's going to change shit.
Other option? Take a chance on Obama. So it might not work, but since when has the thought of failure ever dissuaded us from doing something?
The GOP should never change its name. Because that's exactly what it is.
The GRAND OLD Party.
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